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Second Battle of the Marne
The Second Battle of the Marne (15 July-6 August 1918) was a major battle of World War I, the last major German offensive of the war. A total of 52 (c. 520,000-1,560,000 troops) German divisions, 609 heavy guns, and 1,047 field batteries under Erich Ludendorff launched a major offensive towards the French capital of Paris, facing a total of 58 Allied divisions (c. 580,000-1,740,000 troops), 408 heavy guns, 360 field batteries, and 346 tanks under Ferdinand Foch. The Germans were able to make good progress at first, but a massive Allied counterattack, which employed the use of tanks, shattered the German right flank and forced the German army to withdraw. The Second Battle of the Marne, like the first battle back in August 1914, saw the Germans fail in their attempts to cross the Marne River and take Paris, and the German defeat allowed for the allies to launch the relentless Hundred Days Offensive. Background Between March and June 1918, the Germans achieved major advances on the Western Front. Following the Michael Offensive, the Germans launched offensives in Flanders in April and at the Aisne in late May, but failed to pursue a clear strategy. German losses were heavy and their gains not decisive. Meanwhile, the Allies made French General Ferdinand Foch their supreme commander. In June, US troops fought well at Belleau Wood, halting the Germans at the Marne. Battle By summer 1918, the German high command was beginning to lose touch with the reality of the war. General Erich Ludendorff lanned an offensive to encircle the city of Reims in Champagne, 18 miles north of the Marne River. His aim was to draw the French into committing their reserves to a defense of the historic city, diverting troops away from Flanders, where he then intended to strike a decisive blow. By then, such grandiose plans were beyond the capacity of the German army. It had been severely weakened by heavy losses in offensives since March and was showing increasing signs of declining morale. On the Allied side, Supreme Commander of the Allied Armies General Ferdinand Foch, buoyed by the arrival of US troops in ever-larger numbers, was also planning to take on the offensive. Foch prepared an attack on the western side of the salient created by the German advance to the Marne River between May and June. The French 10th Army was chosen to spearhead the operation, under the command of General Charles Mangin. The Allies learned about the German offensive plans, chiefly through the interrogation of enemy prisoners. The French commander-in-chief Philippe Petain wanted a maximum concentration of forces at Reims to resist the German onslaught, but Foch refused to be deflected from pursuing his own offensive preparations. Attack on Reims The Germans attacked first. On 15 July, the First and Third Armies struck to the east of Reims while the Seventh Army attacked to the west of the city. The defensive positions were held by the French 4th Army under the command of General Henri Gouraud on the eastern side and the Sixth Army under General Jean Degoutte in the west. The French armies also had under their command nine American and two Italian divisions. The German attack to the east of Reims went badly from the start. Gouraud had prepared his defenses in depth, leaving front positions only lightly held. His artillery carried out an effective bombardment of German troops as they assembled for the initial assault. When the Germans rushed forward, they easily overran the French frontline positions, but were brought to a halt in a fiercely defended battle zone to the rear. Gouraud infused the defense with his own ferocity of spirit, calling on his forces to "Kill them, kill them in abundance until they have had enough." The Germans had had enough on 16 July, when the eastern attack was called off. To the west of Reims, however, it was a different story. German stormtroopers established a bridgehead across the Marne. In the fierce fighting that followed, the US 3rd Infantry Division earned its nickname "the Rock of the Marne" for standing firm while other troops fell back. Petain wanted to transfer troops preparing for the Allied offensive to the defense of Reims, but Foch refused. Aided by the arrival of two British divisions, the Allied position west of Reims had stabilized by 17 July. Return to the Marne The German offensive had failed and it was time for the Allied offensive to begin. Foch's aim was to eliminate the large salient created by the German advance from the Aisne to the Marne in late May to early June. The attack was launched on 18 July from positions to the west of the Reims battlefields in the direction of Soissons. Impressive forces had been assembled for the operation, including over 1,000 aircraft and massed tanks, mostly the light Renault FTs. After a brief artillery bombardment, the Allied infantry went "over the top" at dawn, advancing behind a creeping barrage accompanied by tanks. The majority of the troops were French, but the US 1st and Second Divisions spearheaded the assault in the sector around Chateau-Thierry. Although German machine gun and artillery fire inflicted heavy casualties, the tanks helped break through defensive positions and Allied aircraft bombed German troops. Pushed back The Germans were forced back, retreating some 6 miles in the first two days of the offensive. By 22 July, the two US divisions had lost 11,000 men, either killed or wounded, but they had retaken Chateau-Thierry (lost to the Germans in June) and won the admiration of their French colleagues. The French were also impressed by the performance of African-American troops, assigned to separate formations in the segregated US Army. Regiments of the black 93rd Division performed outstandingly when seconded to French divisions, where they received more respectful treatment than they were used to under US command. Through the last week of July, the Germans steadily gave ground and by 3 August had managed an orderly withdrawal across the Aisne River, returning to the positions they had held before their offensive in late May. Ludendorff had been forced to transfer troops south from Flanders to help hold the line against the French advance, ending any prospect of a renewed German offensive toward the Channel ports. Although Ludendorff publicly disparaged the quality of US troops, in private the German leadership had to face teh fact that their presence meant that military victory was no longer an option for Germany. The endgame of the war was about to begin. Aftermath The French-led offensive at the Marne was the first in a series of Allied attacks that continued to push the Germans back through 1918. The initial French reaction to the Second Battle of the Marne was relief that Paris had been saved. In recognition of his victory, Foch was granted the title of Marshal of France on 6 August 1918, the second French general accorded this honor during World War I. The first was General Joseph Joffre in 1916. The Allies resumed offensive operations with an important victory won principally by British and Commonwealth forces at Amiens on 8 August. From September, they orchestrated a simultaneous "Grand Offensive" by Allied armies on different sectors of the Western Front, including American-led operations at St. Mihiel and the Meuse-Argonne Offensive and British-led attacks on the Hindenburg Line. Category:Battles Category:World War I